


Stay

by lunabelle



Series: AU One-Shot Collection [1]
Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Anxiety Disorder, Comfort, F/M, Friendship, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-27
Updated: 2017-01-27
Packaged: 2018-09-20 06:14:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9479042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunabelle/pseuds/lunabelle
Summary: When April experiences a frightening situation at work, Andy is the only one she wants to comfort her.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Requested anonymously on tumblr  
> Prompt: _"Stay with me."_

There was so much commotion coming from the Parks Department, Andy had to stop and investigate. He’d been on his way back to the shoeshine stand after getting an early morning snack—a bag of chips and a soda—because he was already starting to get shoeshine head. It wasn’t fun when that happened…not at all. Plus, he had three people waiting in line for him.

Now though, those people were going to have to wait. The look on Leslie’s face when he entered the bull pen was making him nervous. Even more so when he saw them all standing around a fixed point, not far from April’s desk.

But where was April? He couldn’t see her in the crowd.

“Hey,” he called out, and the faces of Leslie, Tom, Donna and Jerry turned at once to look over at him. Ron was kneeling down on the ground, his eyes trained on a particular spot. “What’s going—“ he stopped suddenly. April was lying on the ground, pale. Her eyes were open and she was breathing slowly, but she didn’t seem to realize where she was. “April? W-what happened?”

“Andy,” Leslie sounded just as nervous as he felt. “It’s all right, April just—“

“Is she okay?” he asked, kneeling down beside Ron and reaching for April’s hand. Her palm was cold and sweaty, and she held onto him with a vice-like grip. “What’s wrong? April, it’s me, Andy!”

“Son, give her some space,” Ron said kindly. 

“No, I—April, it’s Andy! It’s me, Andy Dwyer,” he muttered pathetically. April merely continued to stare straight ahead, unblinking. Why wasn’t she responding?

“Andy,” Leslie tugged at his arm and pulled him aside. Donna was dialing 9-1-1 on Ron’s orders. At that same moment, Ann Perkins was hurrying into the room, a first aid bag in her hand.

“Is she gonna be okay?” Andy looked at Leslie quickly, but his attention kept drifting over her shoulder to where April was, the latter pulling her arm from Ann’s grasp as the nurse tried to take her pulse.

“Get away from me,” April shrieked, kicking her leg out. Ann backed away, a confused look on her face.

Leslie, momentarily distracted, turned her attention back to Andy. “She was fine a few minutes ago, and then I asked her a question,” the blonde woman said softly. “She was looking at me funny, and then she started hyperventilating. I think she had an anxiety attack.”

“A what?” Andy wasn’t sure what she meant. “Like, a panic attack?”

“Yes,” Leslie nodded. “Like a panic attack. She’d been talking to some woman who came to request a permit only a minute before that. She was fine.”

“I said get away from me!” April screamed at Ann again, while Donna and Jerry watched uncomfortably. Ron put a shaky hand on April’s shoulder, looking totally uncomfortable, but she shook him off before standing and bolting for the door.

“April! Stop!” Leslie shouted after her, but before Andy could so much as process what was happening, her yellow cardigan was disappearing down the hall and out of sight.

He didn’t wait for anyone else to react. Instead, he took off after her.

 

It didn’t take long to find her. She’d made it all the way to the parking garage, her keys shaking in her trembling hands as she tried to unlock her car. Fumbling with them, she dropped them on the ground before collapsing to her knees and taking deep, steady breaths.

“April?” he called out softly, careful not to startle her.

She turned, her face wet and still unbelievably pale. She didn’t seem surprised to see him. In fact, she looked almost relieved for a fraction of a second.

“Go away,” April sniffed, picking up her keys.

“I wanted to make sure you’re all right,” he said.

“Leave me alone,” she said, a little more angrily. “You don’t know how to help me, so just leave.”

Andy felt his heart sink at her words. “Can you let me try?” He took a step forward. “Please? You’re my friend, and I—I wanna make sure you’re okay.”

She stood shakily, but her legs seemed to give out. He caught her before she hit the ground.

“Hey,” he whispered, cradling her in his arms. “You’re _not_ okay right now.” Slowly he sat down, leaning his back against her car while she sat in his lap. He kept his arms securely around her, and that seemed to help a bit. She wasn’t shaking nearly as hard. “I’ve got you.”

The sound of running footsteps was getting louder. He could hear Leslie’s panicked voice and Ron’s low grumbling response.

“Andy?” Leslie called out. “April?”

“Here,” Ron appeared between the cars across from them. “They’re over here.”

“Oh, thank God,” Leslie panted, resting her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. “Are you—are you okay?”

“I’ve got her,” Andy said simply, looking down at April pressed against his chest. Her eyes were closed now, but her breathing was back to normal.

“April,” Leslie said softly. “I think you should go to the hospital.”

“Leslie, I think she’s all right,” Ron pointed out, his hands in his belt. "Let her make her own decision."

“Ron, she passed out!” Leslie said, completely exasperated. “She’s pale, she had an attack…she needs to see someone.”

“Leslie—“

“Ron—“

“I’ll go.”

The two Parks directors turned their heads in unison, shocked to hear April’s voice.

“You—you’ll go?” Leslie asked, blinking rapidly.

April clenched the edge of Andy’s shirt in her fist as she sat, and slowly nodded her head. “I’ll go.”

“Oh, thank God,” Leslie breathed. “Okay, the ambulance is already here. Let me just get my things—“

“I want Andy to go with me,” April said.

Andy felt his heart do a weird thumping motion. Of course he was going to go with her. He’d wanted to anyway, but he wasn’t sure if _she’d_ want him there.

“Andy?” Leslie looked confused. “I—oh, okay, well—“ she looked at Ron, who raised his eyebrow.

“Son, will you be able to go with her?” the older man asked.

Andy nodded quickly. “Yeah, totally,” he said, glancing at April for confirmation. She only continued resting her head against his chest, not speaking another word. He took that as a yes.

 

“April?” Andy spoke her name quietly as she lay in the cold hospital bed, drowsy from the medicine they’d given her and exhausted from the day.

It had been a strange afternoon. After riding with her in the ambulance, during which she said nothing to no one and only leaned against him while they drove in silence, they arrived at the hospital, and she was promptly checked over.

April did in fact have an anxiety attack—a big one. Since she hadn’t alerted any family regarding her whereabouts, the doctors spoke with Andy. They asked him several confusing questions he didn’t know the answers to—after all, he and April were just friends—and asked him how long he’d known her.

When he asked them why she’d reacted the way she did, the doctors explained to him that anxiety attacks affect people differently. Some have minor reactions, and some, like in April’s case, can be very severe. Luckily she was only going to stay the night for observation, and she’d be released first thing in the morning.

“Yeah?” she answered him softly, turning her head in his direction.

“How’re you feeling?” he asked, sitting in the chair beside her bed.

She shrugged.

“Can I, um, ask you something else?” he scratched his neck nervously.

“Sure.”

“Why did…what made you…y’know, today at work—“

She sat up a little and turned to face him fully, pulling the covers up to her chest. She seemed a little sad, but her face had a look like this certainly wasn’t the first time this had happened.

“Sometimes I just…” she sighed. “…it’s hard talking to people…and um…sometimes I just feel like, like it’s too much.”

Andy didn’t understand what April was talking about. He loved talking to people. One of his favorite things about working at the shoeshine stand was that he was _always_ having conversations, sometimes about the most random things.

“Why?”

She gave him a tiny, sideways smirk. “It’s hard to explain,” she said. “But it’s fine. I’ve been this way my whole life.”

“Oh,” Andy put his hands in his lap. He felt like he didn’t know what to do with them.

“This girl came into the office for a permit,” April spoke slowly, running her fingers over the edge of the sheets. “I went to high school with her. She was always really…horrible. She didn’t make it easy for me during those four years.”

Andy looked at her knowingly. He had lots of friends in high school, but he remembered those kids who were different from him. The ones who didn’t have a large group of buddies with them all the time. The ones who would rather shrink into the shadows than have to interact with any of the other kids. He always felt sad when he saw them.

“Did she say something to you?” Andy asked.

“She didn’t have the chance,” April said. “I backed away as soon as I saw her. That’s when I started to…you know.”

“Yeah,” Andy cleared his throat. “Can I ask you something else?”

“Sure,” April looked intrigued.

“How come you didn’t call Derek and Ben?”

April averted her eyes and shrugged. “They don’t get it,” she said. “Sometimes they don’t get me. I don’t want them here, anyway. We broke up, remember?”

“Oh yeah, at the Valentine senior's dance, right?”

“Right.”

Andy remembered her telling him about it at the shoeshine stand the day after the dance. April had spent a lot of time with him that afternoon, so much so that she was two hours late after lunch break.

“Well, I’m glad I was there today,” he said proudly. And he was.

“Listen, um,” April sat up even more. “Thanks for coming with me and, you know, helping me out earlier. You didn't have to.”

“We’re friends,” Andy reminded her. “I’ll always help you whenever you need it.”

She smiled for real this time, and moved over so there was a large space next to her in the bed.

“Will you stay with me?” she asked, in the smallest voice he’d ever heard.

He didn’t have to think twice. “Yeah, ‘course I will.”

He kicked off his shoes and slid into the tiny bed next to her. Immediately, she settled against him, wrapping her arm around his chest while her head rested in the crook of his shoulder. She was cold, so he pulled the blanket up higher and wrapped his own arm around her slender frame.

“This okay?” she asked sleepily.

“Yeah,” he whispered. “This is perfect.”


End file.
